Jason Siska is currently a student teacher at Prairie Middle School in Barrington, Illinois, and also coaches gymnastics for middle and elementary school boys. He previously worked as a nude model for the Illinois State University Art Department, a carpenter/construction worker and after-school supervisor for Glenn Elementary School. He studied history and Spanish for four years at Illinois State University.

Born and raised in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, Siska moved to the "gold coast" of Chicago for five years before moving to the Barrington area for eight years. He then moved to Normal, Illinois for college.

Siska's hobbies include frisbee, rock-climbing, soccer and sailing. He describes himself as spontaneous, liberal and inquisitive. He is most proud of traveling alone for a summer in Central America and volunteering his services in Costa Rica and then backpacking through Columbia and the Lost City. He believes his abilities to rock-climb, fish, hunt, camp, cook, fire-tend, swim, boat and being a great masseuse will help him go far on SURVIVOR. He is also a certified PADI scuba diver.

Siska is currently single and lives in Fox River Grove, Illinois, with his Himalayan cats, Baby and Little Girl, along with his corn snake, Copper. His birth date is March 4, 1985.

St. John native Jason Wilder Siska hopes to make his home island proud with his appearance on “Survivor – Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites,” the next installment of the reality show which challenges participants to “outwit, outplay, outlast.” Siska will draw from his experience growing up on St. John in hopes of being the last man standing to win the show’s $1 million prize.

The show, which was taped in the fall amidst the Rock Islands of Palau, Micronesia, will premiere next month. The upcoming installment of the popular reality show comes with a twist — 10 super fans of the series will be competing against 10 Survivor veterans, including the popular Jon “Johnny Fairplay” Dalton from Survivor: Pearl Islands and Yau-Man Chan from Survivor: Fiji.

When Siska heard the next season of Survivor would pit fans against veterans, he knew he had to be a part of the competition, the St. John native explained.

“I’ve always been a fan since day one,” said Siska. “Ever since I saw the first episode, the show really appealed to me because of the whole outdoors and wilderness aspect.”

John’s Folly, Coral Bay Childhood MemoriesSiska, who was one of the first scheduled births at the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center in the early 1980s, fondly recalls spending his youth in John’s Folly and Coral Bay.

“Living out in John’s Folly, I grew up running around naked as a baby, chasing chickens and stuff like that,” said Siska. “Once I got into high school and we were living in the states, I’d come down to the island with friends and we’d camp at Cinnamon Bay. We roughed it in the tents, which could definitely help prepare you for a game like Survivor, where you’re surviving out in the wilderness.”

The Survivor contestant, who currently lives in Fox River Grove, Illinois, where he works as a student teacher, still enjoys visiting family and friends on St. John.

“I love the island and I can’t wait to get back,” said Siska. “I love to hitchhike around the island and meet people, and go spear fishing in non-V.I. National Park waters.”

Siska hopes to return to St. John some time in March, when he plans to host a gathering at a yet to be determined local bar where residents can watch that week’s episode of Survivor with him.

“Winning Kid”The Survivor contestant could not comment on his experience on the reality show per his contract with CBS, however his godmother Tutu Singer, owner of Tutu Much near Chateau Bordeaux, is confident that Siska will do well.

“He’s a winning kid whether he wins Survivor or not,” said Singer. “He’s been coming to visit me forever, and he’s a wonderful kid. He’s been like one of our own children for so many years.”

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

No such thing as too much of a good thing...he's a little skinny but still!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Let's not give Jason Siska the award for smartest Survivor player this season. He fell for Ozzy's awfully constructed fake immunity idol. He found a real immunity idol and didn't play it, which ended up being his undoing in the game. Yet, despite his less than stellar moments, there's a lot that Jason has to be proud of. He played a classy game, wasn't manipulative or ruthless, and gave Ozzy a pretty good run for his money in physical challenges. In his exclusive interview with BuddyTV, Jason was a good sport about the idol mishaps and kicked himself for his mistakes late in the game. Read on to find out what he thinks of Natalie and who he would have taken to final three!

Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I'm talking to Jason from Survivor: Micronesia. Hey Jason, how are you doing?

Still recovering from last night's episode.

Ah! I told the readers of BuddyTV that I was going to yell at you. I was like, "What is he doing?" at the tribal council.

I know, right? What a mistake that was.

Is it possible for the hidden immunity idol to be found and successfully played?

The hidden immunity idol is very difficult to use, because you've gotta know the votes are coming your way. There's three different things that could happen with it: You could play it and not use it, you could play it and save yourself, or you could not play it and get voted out. That was the mistake that Ozzy and I made.

Well, say you had played it on last night's episode and James had ended up going home. The next time you didn't win immunity wouldn't you have been the next one to go anyway?

Well, my feelings were that in this season the name of the game was fans versus favorites. If Natalie would have been honest with me and James had gone home, it would have been Erik, Natalie, Alexis, and myself. Four fans who I believe should stick together throughout the whole game. We could have taken out Cirie, Amanda, and Parvati, the three girls, and the fans could have been in the final four. The favorites had their shot already, this is our turn. It didn't work out that way. I would have loved to see all four of us go to the end together. I thought it was in Natalie's best interest to keep me around, and that's one of the reasons why I didn't play the idol. I just hope it comes back to haunt Natalie for making such a dumb move and voting me off. She's gotta be totally naive to think that Parvati, Amanda, and Cirie would take her to the final two or three instead of one of them. It was an idiotic move on her part. I don't know where she was coming from.

Yeah, what was up with her bad attitude last night? We haven't seen much with her this season, and I didn't know if you had experienced that before or if she just decided to suddenly turn on you last night.

Yeah, I don't know either. Some people might even be like, "Who was that girl?" She hasn't really done anything the whole season so far. Yeah, it was cold-hearted. She lost her teeth after cutting out my jugular.

She called you so many names, she sent you to Exile Island. What is with the hatred toward you from her? I don't even get it.

I don't know. I guess I'm not too surprised, because she's been a cocktail waitress in L.A. for the past 10 years, so maybe it gets to you over time.

A lot of the favorites have said that the fans have played a terrible game this season. How do you respond to something like that?

I don't know, it's easy to say that when you're not playing the game. You mean favorites who have been voted out?

Yeah, favorites who have been voted out. Ozzy, Eliza, Penner, they've all said that you guys have played a terrible game.

Yeah, I think that started back in the beginning when Joel chose to vote out Mary and Mikey B instead of the quitters, Chet and Kathy. Right then and there it was just like, I think, the first mistake that happened. From there it was hard to recover, especially for me, now that you're out there with these people who don't even want to be there and end up quitting the game. It was just hard. I'm not gonna lie, the fans did not play the best game that I've ever seen.

If you had been able to stay in the game, who would you have taken to final three with you? If you had the choice?

I would have taken Natalie and Alexis with me, because I think from the jury I could have pulled a couple votes. I think I had Eliza's vote, I think Ozzy respected me as a competitor, he would have thrown a vote my way. Amanda and I actually got along really well on the show, I think that would have been another vote. One more vote from somebody and that could have had me with the million dollars.

When you're on the jury and you're writing down someone's name to give them the million dollars, what is the factor for you to write their name down?

It's gonna be the most deserving person. The person who made the best moves and who owns up to what they did in the game.

When you look back on your experience on Survivor, was it everything that you hoped it would be? Are you happy with it?

It was everything and more. I had an amazing time. A couple of highlights were going to Yap and winning that reward challenge, and also winning that first hidden immunity challenge was incredible. Every one of the challenges was a blast, and if I had a chance to do it again I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Well we look forward to seeing you at the live finale. I'll be there, so I hope to get to say hi to you.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan